'Hare Hill House heroes' provide paint job

Volunteers from a local co-op swapped their day job for paint brushes and pots of paint on Wednesday 14 March when they spent the day helping to re-decorate Hare Hill House in Littleborough.

Hare Hill House is a historic building dating back to the 1700s which retains many of its Georgian and Victorian features. It originally belonged to the Newall family and was bought by the Littleborough Urban District Council in 1901. This then provided the public park, a library, council offices and premises for the fire station.

Peter Hook, Chairman of the Friends of Hare Hill House, said: “This is the second visit in 18 months for this team from the Co-op – it really does support our efforts and help us to achieve much more than we could do alone.

“We are really pleased that Hare Hill House is one of the local good causes to have benefited from the Co-op’s Membership scheme. To create a community centre for the people of Littleborough, we rely heavily on our ‘Hare Hill Heroes’. They are a group of volunteers that give up a tremendous amount of time and good will in taking this challenging project forward. I can safely say that the volunteers from the Co-op can consider themselves as Honorary Hare Hill Heroes.”

The Co-op’s Jo Porter, who helped to organise the volunteering activity, said: “As a community retailer, the Co-op is committed to making a difference in its local communities and our team was keen to spend time supporting the charity, helping to decorate the building in order to improve its facilities and support the work Hare Hill House does in the community. It was a great day, hard work but very rewarding. When communities come together we can achieve much more and make a positive difference to local life.”

The local community fund works by donating 1% of the money spent on selected own-brand products by Co-op members towards a cause.

The Co-op membership scheme sees members receive a 5% reward on the purchase of own-brand products and services.

Shoppers can select their own cause to benefit from their 1%, and any money raised by members who don’t select a cause is added to the money raised from shopping bag sales. This is shared equally between the causes in their local area.

Local good causes, charities and community groups can now apply to benefit from the Co-op’s Community Fund until 8 April 2018.